Page 37 (2/2)
I took a deep breath and lowered myself so that ere eye level I had to ood friend to Alex, youʼre going to have to promise to never, ever, ever tell anyone that he was here today"
"Scout, I can keep a secret"
"But this is a big secret An important one" One that probably shouldnʼt have been entrusted to a first grader, but it was a little late for that
"Iʼve kept big, i her it would be that her best friend, Kinsey Jessup, still watched Dora the Explorer
Angel gave a drah and eye roll that she had to have picked up from Jase "If I told you, they wouldnʼt be secrets anyotten into a situation where so much depended upon my little sisterʼs ability to keep her mouth shut? I should have sent Alex hoel listen" I closed h the color spectrue phase "Alex means a lot to me," I finally said "If anyone found out that he was here or thatyou know"
"You kiss hihtwe ain
He would have to move really far away" Or worse
She stretched out her arnify the most solemn vow a six year old could make "I wonʼt tell anyone Pinky-promise" I didnʼt doubt her sincerity, but I did doubt her ability to follow through Every ti those next few days I kept expecting the truth to cootten it had ever happened Eventually I started to believe that she had
Turns out, though, that ood, in fact, that I had no idea what she was up to when she askedThursday
Lake County has iven road without seeing one of those ugly brown Corps of Engineering signs proclai some random field a recreation area Most of the spots had picnic tables housed in shiny pavilions, state-of-the-art playground equips to attract all the su Park was not one of those recreation areas It boasted tings, one of which had been broken since I was a kid, a rusted slide, and a wooden picnic tabledealers, ever went there
"This place is a duravel path I hadso that she didnʼt step on any jagged beer bottle shards interlaced with the rocks "There is only one swing, and a slide that Iʼand hopped on I set up station at the crumbled picnic table, where I atteers Five minutes later, just as I was ready to declare Crappy Park Fun Day over, a car ca down the drive